ARLINGTON, Texas — Brandon Jacobs hates the Cowboys. So try to imagine what it must have been like for him after shedding a pair of marshmallow tackles from defeated Cowboy defenders on his way to the 30-yard touchdown run that buried the ‘Boys.

Try to imagine what it must have been like for him when he looked down, and there at his happy feet sat the famous blue star inside the famous silver helmet in the right corner of the end zone.

How could the big man not dance on that star?

Jacobs’ night hadn’t started so merrily. He lost a fumble when Bradie James stripped him from behind and recovered, seting up a first-half Dallas field goal. Coach Tom Coughlin looked as if ownership had ordered him to let Tiki Barber handle the play-calling the rest of the night.

But Coughlin, to his credit, did not keep Jacobs in his doghouse.

When Eli Manning threw his third interception of the night, it was Jacobs who caught Keith Brooking and wrestled him to the ground, and hard.

And when it finally ended, after Jacobs and Travis Beckum had recovered a last-gasp onsides kick that bounced off him, Jacobs stopped in the tunnel below cheering Giant fans and waved his arms and encouraged them to cheer some more.

And then, mouthpiece exposed, Jacobs punched the air with vigor with his right fist and disappeared to join his triumphant teammates.

“It’s nice to get a longer one, it’s nice to get out and run a little bit and put it in the end zone,” Jacobs said. “And I broke two tackles — I wasn’t gonna let anything stop me.”

And the star and the helmet below you?

“I saw it, I’m like, ‘I’m gonna get in there and perform,’ ” Jacobs said. “The one in the middle was too far away, so I was already tired.”

And what exactly do you call what you did in the end zone?

“Worldwide, man,” Jacobs said. “Where have you been?”

“[Coughlin] was ticked off, no question. I was ticked off, everyone was ticked, but I know why it happened,” Jacobs said. “It was not anything that they did, so I kept myself up, and like, ‘You know what? I’m gonna go back out here and finish punishing ‘em, and hold on to it, and keep on barreling into people until they give up.”